Artificial fireplace log



April 23, 1957 A. STEVENS 2,789,890

ARTIFICIAL FIREPLACE LOG Fi led March 8 1954 I B yian/Iwv Z ATTORNEYS United States Patent ARTIFICIAL FIJREPLACE LOG Leonard A. Stevens, San Lorenzo, Calif., assignor to Stevens Fireplace Log Corporation, San Lorenzo, Cahfi, a corporation of= Californiai Application March 8, 1954; SerialNo; 414,559

I Claim. (Cl. 44-41) This invention relates to artificial fireplace logs and is an improvement on the invention disclosed in my copending application, Serial? No, 3'28;09 9;.filed December 26, 1952, for Artificial Combustible Log, and now abandoned.

It is among the objects of the present invention. to provide an improved artificial fireplace log formed of oil impregnated, combustible particles, such as sawdust, wood shavings or rice hulls, compressed into a compact body of log-simulating size and shape and provided with an inner, particle retaining cover and at least one outer, oil impervious cover; which has an inner cover constituting a section of an elongated tube of coarse mesh textile material which is flexible, resilient and air pervious; which has an inner cover treated with fireproofing material to render the inner cover fire resistant to an extent such that it will remain substantially intact and retain the combustible particles in place until the body of particles is substantially consumed, which has an outer cover or wrapper of readily combustible, oil impervious sheet material which maintains the outer surface of the artificial log free of oil and provides a kindling facility which may be utilized to ignite the log; and which can be formed rapidly and economically in quantity and has a neat and attractive appearance which enhances the marketability of the article.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantages, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth in the following description of the preferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawing accompanying and forming part of the specification. it is to be understood, however, that variations in the showing made by the said drawing and description may be adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claim.

Referring to said drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an artificial fireplace log illustrative of the invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary cross sectional view on a plane indicated by the section line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a transverse cross sectional view on an enlarged scale taken on a plane indicated by the section line 3-3 of Figure 1.

With continued reference to the drawing, the artificial fireplace log therein illustrated comprises a body 19 of compressed particles or fragments of combustible material, an inner cover 11 of a tubular structure of coarse mesh textile material, and an outer cover or wrapper 12 of flexible, oil and moisture impervious sheet material.

The inner body is formed of a compressed mass of combustible particles or fragments, such as sawdust, wood shavings or rice hulls, saturated or impregnated with a flame supporting liquid, such as used crank case oil. It has been found that a composition containing combustible particles and oil in substantially equal quantities by weight provides excellent results in use.

The inner cover 11 is a section of a length of tubular, loosely knit or coarse mesh textile material, such as a Patented Apr. 23,1957

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render the inner cover sufiiciently flame resistant, that it will remain substantiallyintact. during the burning of the body of oil impregnatedfparticl'es and hold=these particles in the log simulating shape until the body is substantially completely. consumed. Although borax and boric acid are suggested for fl'ameproofing the. inner cover 11, there are numerous other commercial fire retarding liquids available with which the inner cover may be treated.

The outer cover or wrapper 12. is. formed from a flexible sheet of polyethylene or similar material whichv is oil, air and moisture imperviousbut is readily ignitable and burns at a sufi'iciently high temperature to ignite the compressed body 10 through the. inner. cover.

The artificial logs may be conveniently, rapidly and economically manufactured by utilizing a machine similar to the well known sausage stuffing machine, such a machine having a hopper, an elongated, tubular horn and power driven mechanism for forcing material from the hopper through the horn, compressing the material as it passes through the horn.

A length of tubular inner cover material may be placed on such a horn in the same manner that a length of sausage casing is placed on the horn of a sausage stutting machine, the free end of the tubular fabric is tied, a quantity of oil impregnated particles is placed in the hopper and the machine is placed in operation forcing the particles from the hopper through the horn and, in

a compressed condition, into the tubular cover. As sections of the cover of predetermined length are filled, the sections are tied off at their ends and severed from the portion of the tubular cover still on the horn. As an important feature, I have found that compressing the impregnated particles from a loose volume of 1% to a packed volume of l, a pressure of approximately p. s. i. is required. I have likewise ascertained that this compression ratio, produces a relatively hard and stable product which may be conveniently handled without disturbing the cylindrical or other shape that the product was compressed into.

Also, I preferably utilize an additional adhesive to insure proper cohesion of the particles so as to maintain the desired shape. In practice, the adhesive utilized is a spray-dried powder which is a chemical lay-product of Wood pulping by the sulfite process using an ammonia base, the by-products being ammonium lignin sulfonates and sugars, occurring in a fixed proportion. This material is available on the market under the registered trade mark Orzan A from the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. The powder is mixed in with the dry particles and is extremely eifective as a binder as it sets up under heat.

The outer cover may be applied by placing a filled section into an open end bag, and then folding the end of the bag into overlapping relationship, as indicated at 16, and then sealing the same. If desired, a fiat sheet of outer cover material could be used and wrapped around the filled section of inner cover material in a conventional wrapping manner, with the edges being heat sealed or otherwise secured together.

After one or more of the artificial logs have been place in a fireplace it or they may be ignited by applying a match to an edge of the outer wrapper, although the outer wrapper may first be longitudinally slitted if desired.

It will be readily appreciated that as the wrapper 12 is readily ignitable, it will be consumed in a relatively short time, generating suflicient heat to ignite the oil saturated particles comprising the inner body 10. Due to the flame-resistant characteristics of the inner cover 11, the latter will remain substantially intact during the combustion of the body, yet because of its open mesh, sufiicient air may pass therethrough to properly support the uniform burning which is characteristic of my log.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come Within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

A long burning artificial fireplace log comprising an elongated solid body of compacted particles of combustible material and flame supporting liquid present in substantially equal quantities by Weight, said particles and liquid being subjected to a compacting pressure of approximately 100 pounds per square inch so as to compress a loose volume of said particles and liquid to approximately one-half the loose volume and so as to make said solid body substantially form-retaining, whereby the burning of the particles of said body takes place slowly substantially along the exposed surfaces of said formed body, an inner cover of flame resistant and air pervious textile material closely receiving said body, and a wrapper of oil and moisture impervious sheets of readily combustible material enclosing and sealing said body and said inner cover.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 282,868 Eddy Aug. 7, 1883 390,610 Macbrair Oct. 2, 1888 2,011,245 Home Aug. 13, 1935 FOREIGN PATENTS 531,174 Great Britain Dec. 31, 1940 OTHER REFERENCES Textile Finishing-Marsh, Chapman and Hall, London, 1948, pp. 528-9. 

